Speakers made the comment during a meeting titled ‘Challenges in implementing Road Transport Act 2018’ organized by Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity (BJKS), a passengers' welfare organisation at the Press Club in the morning.
“However, it will be possible to implement the law if sincere cooperation from the law enforcing agencies, owners (of transport services), transport sector workers and people in general can be ensured,” they said.
Speakers also said that unless the efficiency and capabilities of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) are built up and infrastructure appropriate to the laws of roads and highways is developed, no real benefit will be derived from the RTA being in the books.
At the meeting, it was alleged that the government will become more helpless if the people are held hostage by the owners and workers as the passengers are not represented in the new law like the old. The RTA replaced the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1983.
“The transport sector is plagued by problems that have accumulated over the years. All these problems will be an obstacle to enforcing the new Road Transport Act,” said Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, secretary general of BJKS reading from the concept paper on the occasion.
Emphasizing that the government must adopt and implement timely digital technology to face the challenges, he outlined the main challenges in the transport sector in his speech.
Transport specialist Dr SM Salehuddin, a former executive director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority or DTCA, renowned journalist Abu Sayeed Khan, general secretary of Bangladesh Truck & Covered Van Owners Association Zafar Chowdhury, director of FBCCI Abdul Haque, and mass transport specialist Ruhin Hossain Prince, who is also a central leader of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, all spoke at the meeting.